Eliot Kelly (Wrestling)

Eliot Kelly was a Division 1 Wrestler at UC Davis under the legendary coaching of Lennie Zalesky andMark Munoz. At UC Davis he became a two time Pac-10 place winner, Open Freestyle State Champion, and earned Medals at other collegiate tournaments. Eliot has wrestled and beaten some cream-of-the-crop wrestlers from BIG 10 and BIG 12 schools, including; Univ. of Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa Univ., Oklahoma State, and Oregon State.

Eliot also has experience working as a counselor at a few of the toughest, most renowned wrestling camps in the nation, including; J Robinson’s Intensive Wrestling Camp, Camp of Champs Ironman Training Camp, The Eternal Warrior Wrestling Camp, and West Coast Wrestling Camps. In addition to these Intensive Camps, he spent his summers learning from as many different clinicians as possible.

After graduation from UC Davis in 2007, Eliot headed to Japan where he began his coaching career with Western Conference Champions, Ritsumeinkan University as an Assistant Coach. He also worked with other freestyle clubs in Shiga Prefecture alongside former Olympians and National Champions. After returning from Japan to the Sacramento area, he joined the coaching staff at UC Davis to assist with coaching the upper weights while training and competing to make the Freestyle National Team.

Seshito Shimizu, Eliot Kelly, Masahiko Kimura

In the summer of 2011, Eliot had the opportunity to join Team Japan’s national training camp in preparation for the World Championships. “This training camp was an eye opener. It was the first time I began to see and understand how coaching needs to be approached. There is a system to success, and an effective system takes a lot of experience, thought, and a team of coaches to implement.”

Here is what Eliot has to say about wrestling: “There is an international family or brotherhood that all wrestlers belong to as wrestlers. I suggest all wrestlers to go beyond their boarders to train, learn, and experience wrestling in another language. I can’t explain how much I have grown as a result of my experiences abroad. In the future, I would love to lead a team of wrestlers to train and compete abroad!”